Lecardonnel, Xavier | Search NASA

DOE OSTI2013

Metallic surfaces decontamination by using laser light

Metal surface cleaning appears to be one of the major priorities for industries especially for nuclear industries. The research and the development of a new technology that is able to meet the actual requirements (i.e. waste volume minimization, liquid effluents and chemicals free process...) seems to be the main commitment. Currently, a wide panel of technologies already exists (e.g. blasting, disk sander, electro-decontamination...) but for some of them, the efficiency is limited (e.g, Dry Ice blasting) and for others, the wastes production (liquid and/or solid) remains an important issue. One answer could be the use of a LASER light process. Since a couple of years, the Clean- Up Business Unit of the AREVA group investigates this decontamination technology. Many tests have been already performed in inactive (i.e. on simulants such as paints, inks, resins, metallic oxides) or active conditions (i.e. pieces covered with a thick metallic oxide layer and metallic pieces covered with grease). The paper will describe the results obtained in term of decontamination efficiency during all our validation process. Metallographic characterizations (i.e. SEM, X-ray scattering) and radiological analysis will be provided. We will also focus our paper on the future deployment of the LASER technology and its commercial use at La Hague reprocessing facility in 2013. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2012

Surface Decontamination Using Laser Ablation Process - 12032

A new decontamination method has been investigated and used during two demonstration stages by the Clean-Up Business Unit of AREVA. This new method is based on the use of a Laser beam to remove the contaminants present on a base metal surface. In this paper will be presented the type of Laser used during those tests but also information regarding the efficiency obtained on non-contaminated (simulated contamination) and contaminated samples (from the CEA and La Hague facilities). Regarding the contaminated samples, in the first case, the contamination was a quite thick oxide layer. In the second case, most of the contamination was trapped in dust and thin grease layer. Some information such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray scattering spectroscopy and decontamination factors (DF) will be provided in this paper. Laser technology appears to be an interesting one for the future of the D and D applications. As shown in this paper, the results in terms of efficiency are really promising and in many cases, higher than those obtained with conventional techniques. One of the most important advantages is that all those results have been obtained with no generation of secondary wastes such as abrasives, chemicals, or disks... Moreover, as mentioned in introduction, the Laser ablation process can be defined as a 'dry' process. This technology does not produce any liquid waste (as it can be the case with chemical process or HP water process...). Finally, the addition of a vacuum system allows to trap the contamination onto filters and thus avoiding any dissemination in the room where the process takes place. The next step is going to be a commercial use in 2012 in one of the La Hague buildings. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗